Europe

Home page

Europe

Militant Irish nationalists renew threats, 6 arrested

10 April 2012 04:56 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Police in Northern Ireland arrested six men in Londonderry on Monday after a group of Irish militant nationalists threatened renewed armed attacks on law enforcement during a ceremony attended by hundreds at a city graveyard, APA reports quoting Reuters.

A man wearing a balaclava said Oglaigh na hEireann, also known as the Real IRA, would "continue to attack Crown Force personnel, their installations, as well as British interests and infrastructure," in footage broadcast by television station UTV.

Around 300 nationalists attended the wreath-laying ceremony to mark the anniversary of the 1916 Easter Rising in Dublin against British rule. A number of supporters applauded the speech.

A 1998 peace agreement largely ended over three decades of violence between Catholic Irish nationalists, who wanted a united Ireland, and predominantly Protestant Loyalists who wanted the province to remain British.

But dissident Irish nationalists, including the Real IRA, opposed to the deal and seeking a united Ireland fight on with sporadic gun and bomb attacks which have intensified in the past couple of years.

The Real IRA is an offshoot of the Provisional Irish Republican Army, which was disbanded after the 1998 peace deal.

The Police Service of Northern Ireland watched the ceremony from a helicopter which hovered above and officers waited until after the crowd had dispersed to arrest the men.

Police on Friday said a "significant" bomb was found near the main Dublin-to-Belfast motorway and that investigators believed the attack may have been carried out by dissident Irish nationalists.